Although ants are very tiny creatures, they are very strong. Ants were found to be capable of lifting an object weighing 5 times as much as their own weight at the maximum in their mandibles. Furthermore,some ants of the different species are able to carry an object weighing up to 25 times as much as its own body at the maximum by dragging it along the ground to the nest. Large species carry food individually or by working as a team of 3-4 ants at the most. On the other hand, in small species, a team consisting of as many as dozens of ants carries the food, or tears the food into pieces and then carries each piece independently. This shows that little creatures can do big things
@magnoliablossom Nice job! But here's a challenge for everyone else: Why can ants carry so much weight? Here's the tricky part, though: don't look up the answer directly (as in, don't google "why are ants so strong") but give a guess and google facts to support your opinion. For instance, if I wanted to say "Ants are strong because they, er, are hard to kill" then I'd have to look up, say, ants' resistance to pesticide and use that info to support my hypothesis.
Yep, but it doesn't have to be in the if...then... format, if you don't want to- it's just what you think, and then you should prove it as though what you think is true
The question that I am pondering today states, how much weight can an ant carry? Well, let's see, an ant can carry up to 50 times the weight of its own bodily structure. An ant can carry up to 50 times it's own body weight because of the term, "scaling", which means that since ants are so small, they have an advantage, and their advantage is that they can carry SO much weight at once. Also, since ants have just a little bit extra muscle, they can carry more, but their muscle weight is not much of a different in proportions compared to humans, so it wouldn't make a HUGE different. Altogether, ants can carry 50 times their own body weight and they do that by having such a small bodily frame.
@njguy Your explanation about scaling is a little unclear. It doesn't make sense that little animals can carry more, because would it be more likely that whatever they're carry would squish them, as opposed to bigger animals who won't get squished so easily? And also, does their exoskeleton play a part in anything? I always thought that their tough outer shell would contribute to their "inhuman" strength.
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Although ants are very tiny creatures, they are very strong. Ants were found to be capable of lifting an object weighing 5 times as much as their own weight at the maximum in their mandibles. Furthermore,some ants of the different species are able to carry an object weighing up to 25 times as much as its own body at the maximum by dragging it along the ground to the nest. Large species carry food individually or by working as a team of 3-4 ants at the most. On the other hand, in small species, a team consisting of as many as dozens of ants carries the food, or tears the food into pieces and then carries each piece independently. This shows that little creatures can do big things
@magnoliablossom Nice job! But here's a challenge for everyone else: Why can ants carry so much weight? Here's the tricky part, though: don't look up the answer directly (as in, don't google "why are ants so strong") but give a guess and google facts to support your opinion. For instance, if I wanted to say "Ants are strong because they, er, are hard to kill" then I'd have to look up, say, ants' resistance to pesticide and use that info to support my hypothesis.
Oops! I forgot to post my sources:
-ant.edb.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/BE/Kingdom/2829/2829e.html
@Pippins14- So you mean that you want us to make a hypothesis before finding an actual answer like in a lab?
Yep, but it doesn't have to be in the if...then... format, if you don't want to- it's just what you think, and then you should prove it as though what you think is true
The question that I am pondering today states, how much weight can an ant carry? Well, let's see, an ant can carry up to 50 times the weight of its own bodily structure. An ant can carry up to 50 times it's own body weight because of the term, "scaling", which means that since ants are so small, they have an advantage, and their advantage is that they can carry SO much weight at once. Also, since ants have just a little bit extra muscle, they can carry more, but their muscle weight is not much of a different in proportions compared to humans, so it wouldn't make a HUGE different. Altogether, ants can carry 50 times their own body weight and they do that by having such a small bodily frame.
Here are the sources that I used:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1999-05/927263695.Gb.r.html
~~~njguy320
@njguy Your explanation about scaling is a little unclear. It doesn't make sense that little animals can carry more, because would it be more likely that whatever they're carry would squish them, as opposed to bigger animals who won't get squished so easily? And also, does their exoskeleton play a part in anything? I always thought that their tough outer shell would contribute to their "inhuman" strength.
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